Student Perceptions of Meat Free Mondays
What do you think when you hear the words ‘Meat Free Monday’?
“Salad day.”
“Vegetarian lasagne.”
“Worst thing ever.”
“Tasteless siumai and home lunch, probably.”
“Give us meat!”
“[Expletive], not again.”
“Dharma.”
This is what students across the school had to say initially . Meat Free Monday has been in action for over a year at this stage, and while for some it is a much needed break from the meat-filled selections for food throughout the school, for many students it has been a source of annoyance and dread.
Meat Free Monday (known as Meatless Monday worldwide) is a nonprofit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, an organization that dedicates the first day of every week to health. It was founded in 2003, and it’s primary purpose was to encourage people not to eat meat on Mondays to improve their health. While it began as a program largely based in the US, it has since then spread out to all areas across the globe including our school.
This project was initially pitched by STAR(Sustainability Team @ RCHK), as a way of spreading awareness about how meat uses far more resources to create in comparison to vegetable and grain based foods- and as an initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of the school. This lead to a collaboration between Chartwells and STAR, and as of now meat free Mondays occurs once every second Tuesday.
It's clear that going vegetarian comes with a variety of environmental benefits: The UN estimates the meat industry generates nearly one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions that accelerate climate change. Not only that, but the water needs of livestock in comparison to vegetables and grains are huge; a single pound of beef is estimated to need 1800-2500 gallons of water.
And yet, despite the large amounts of evidence supporting the health and sustainable factors that Meat Free Monday contributes to, it hasn’t caught on. Just listen in to conversations in the cafeteria on Meat Free Monday: complaints are everywhere.
The biggest issue, however, appears to lie in the contents of the meals themselves, rather that the initiative in itself. "Sometimes I buy food and it turns out to be fake meat and I'm like- argh, why?”, one student says. This so called ‘fake meat’ refers to the Soy-bean based meat replacements found in recipes on Meat Free Monday, and issues that most students have with Meat Free Monday have largely stemmed from this.
Students say that the issue lies in the fact that the meat replacements simply don’t take like meat- and are actually a repellent to buying the lunch options with said ‘fake meat’, choosing instead to opt with lunch options that contain no meat at all-fake or otherwise.
However, despite many personal issues with Meat Free Monday, students appear to understand the importance of the event and do want it to continue, though with serious changes in the menu. “I believe it’s important we sustain the practice of Meat Free Monday in the interest of the environment,” says one student, who believes that the unpopularity of Meat Free Monday mainly comes from the fact that people have the preconceived notion that the meals provided then are ‘not as good’ as standard meals.
When asked to find ways to make Meat Free Monday better, people had a wide variety of ideas. Most wanted the ‘fake meat’ to be removed: to simply have vegetarian options that did not utilize meat replacements as part of their dish. Others suggested that a new menu for the specific days would be good at creating more appeal for students, and others still said to change the system entirely, and have options for both vegetarians and meat-eaters on a daily basis- having half of each.
As of now, it doesn’t look like there will be any changes to Meat Free Monday in the near future. While there have been attempts to talk to Chartwells about changing some aspects of Meat Free Monday, this has been largely unsuccessful as of now. However, with adequate student input, it’s entirely possible that there could be some level of change within the system, to make it more effective for both the students and the sustainability of RCHK.
If you want to put forth your ideas, you can talk to your student council representatives or the STAR group within RCHK.
By Hayley Wu
